A political commentator is praising Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for his handling of ministers who aren't up to scratch.
Luxon earlier this week sacked his first ministers, stripping Melissa Lee and Penny Simmonds of their respective Broadcasting and Disability Issues portfolios.
Lee was axed because of her handling of the media crisis. She was also removed from the Cabinet.
Simmonds lost Disability Issues after a communications debacle over funding changes for the community. She was already a minister outside of Cabinet.
Right-leaning political commentator and former ACT Party staffer Trish Sherson told AM how Luxon handled the situation showed the Prime Minister was "trying to be the juxtaposition" to the previous Government.
"He said he was going to have... key performance indicators for all his ministers, he's obviously run the ruler over the scorecard for Melissa Lee and said, 'Not good enough, one strike - you're out.' So, he's tougher on his own ministers than he's going to be on the serious criminals," Sherson said on Friday.
Sherson said while Luxon, as Prime Minister, wasn't going to win "a personality contest", she believed he'd make for it by being a leader "that is seen to do what he says he's going to do".
"I think, at the moment, that's what Kiwis will like about him."
She said now Luxon had set the tone, he had to keep it up.
That echoed comments by former United Future leader Peter Dunne this week, who noted it was "somewhat easier" for Luxon to sack Lee and Simmonds - given they were National Party ministers.
"It will be a different situation though, should future circumstances involve New Zealand First or ACT ministers. While the ultimate authority about who serves as Ministers lies with the Prime Minister, any decision to demote or dismiss New Zealand First or ACT ministers would have to be handled very deftly and would be reliant on the ultimate agreement of the leaders of those parties," Dunne wrote in his weekly column.
"The Prime Minister's credibility would be severely, perhaps irreparably, damaged if he were to attempt or demote ministers from New Zealand First or ACT without agreement from those parties. In this context, it is interesting to compare the treatment of National ministers Lee and Simmonds, with that of New Zealand First minister Casey Costello who arguably caused the Government just as much embarrassment, yet suffered no sanction, over her appalling handling of the smoke-free issue."
Sherson, meanwhile, hit out at former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who questioned Lee's replacement Paul Goldsmith due to a hole he left in National's fiscal plan while he was the party's finance spokesperson in 2020.
"Can I just say, the chip from Chippy (Hipkins)... I mean, extremely rich from Labour given that that was an on-paper error - we all now know there's a tens of billions of dollars real hole that Labour left," Sherson said.
"I did have a little eyeroll at that."
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